Bacchus Finding Ariadne on Naxos

• Bacchus Finding Ariadne on Naxos
• Bacchus Finds Ariadne on Naxos

BK-14692

The god Bacchus, accompanied by a satyr with a torch, discovers the sleeping Ariadne and falls in love with the princess. It is hardly a coincidence that Cupid, the god of love, is seated in the foreground. De Vries was court sculptor to the eccentric Emperor Rudolf II, a lover of mildly erotic art. This relief was thus most likely made for the emperor or someone in the imperial household.

E.V. Strohmer, 'Bemerkungen zu den Werken des Adriaen de Vries', Nationalmusei Arsbok (1947/48) nr. 58, afb. 66.

sculptor: Adriaen de Vries, Praag

c. 1611

brons

height 52.5 cm x width 24 cm x thickness 7 cm

Gift of Kunsthandel N.V. Internationale Antiquiteitenhandel

gift 1935

Public domain

…; ? Kunstkammer Emperor Rudolf II (1552-1612), Prague;{Possibly to be identified as _Ain tafl von metal, so aine schlafende Venus_ (A plate of metal, a sleeping Venus) in the 1619 inventory of his Kunstkammer, see G. Kugler et al., _Prag um 1600: Kunst und Kultur am Hofe Rudolfs II._, exh. cat. Essen (Villa Hügel)/Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum) 1988, no. 540.} ? looted by Swedish troops, 26 July 1648; ? transferred to the Swedish Crown, Queen Christina I of Sweden (1626-1689), Stockholm;{Possibly to be identified as a wax (!) relief mentioned in the 1642 inventory of Queen Christina I of Sweden: _De Prague. Un tableau representant en cire une femme endormie avec un cupidon._ O. Granberg, _Svenska konstsamlingarnas historia fran Gustav Vasas tid till vara dagar_, vol. 1, Stockholm 1929, p. 208, no. 19. However, this could also allude to an unknown wax cast.} ? her son, King Carl X Gustav of Sweden (1622-1660), 1654;{For the reconstruction of the following provenance see B. Martinius et al., _Skattkammaren på Läckö_, coll. cat. Stockholm (Nationalmuseum) 2006, pp. 33-34, 36 and written communication Magnus Olausson, 1 August 2009.} ? his wife, Hedvig Eleonora van Holstein-Gottorp (1636-1715), 1660; ? her private councilor Count Johan Gabriel Stenbock (1640-1705), Stockholm; ? bequeathed to Stina Lillie (1677-1727), Stockholm; ? her daughter, Ulla Sparre (1711-1768), Castle Åkerö in Bettna, married to Count Carl Gustav Tessin (1695-1770), documented in 1735 and 1761;{He described the relief in his 1735 diary as _ett naketqwinfolck och tvenne två karlar_ (a naked woman and two men) and in his 1761 as _Tarquin et Lucrèce bas relief I bronze af Jean de Boulogne_ (a bronze bas-relief of Tarquin and Lucretia by Giambologna), see B. Martinius et al., _Skattkammaren på Läckö_, coll. cat. Stockholm (Nationalmuseum) 2006, pp. 33-34, 36 and notes 19-20.} ? from whom acquired by Georg Brander, London, April 1763;{B. Martinius et al., _Skattkammaren på Läckö_, coll. cat. Stockholm (Nationalmuseum) 2006, p. 36.} …; presented to the museum by the N.V. Internationale Antiquitei-tenhandel, Amsterdam (I. Rosenbaum) to celebrate the museum´s 50th anniversary, 1935

• E.V. Strohmer, 'Bemerkungen zu den Werken des Adriaen de Vries', Nationalmusei Arsbok (1947/48) nr. 58, afb. 66.
• Jaarverslag Rijksmuseum (1935), p. 17, afb. tegenover p. 32.
• C.M.A.A. Lindeman, 'Rijksmuseum te Amsterdam : Aanwinsten 2', Mededeelingen van het Departementvan Onderwijs, Kunsten en Wetenschappen 2 (1935), p. 534.
• H.E. van Gelder, 'Enkele nieuwe gegevens omtrent Adriaen de Vries', Mededeelingen van den Dienst voor Kunsten en Wetenschappen der gemeente 's Gravenhage 4 (1937), p. 23.

To refer to this object, please use the following persistent URL:

https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/200115885